Global Healthcare Capacity: Top 100 Countries by Physicians per 1,000 People, 2025
Which health systems have the deepest bench of physicians in 2025?
This ranking looks at physicians per 1,000 people – a core indicator of healthcare capacity. It is not the only ingredient of strong health systems, but once doctor density falls below roughly 1–1.5 per 1,000 people, timely access to care and survival rates for treatable conditions usually deteriorate.
Top 10 countries by physicians per 1,000 people (approx., 2025)
Small high-income states and parts of Southern and Eastern Europe dominate the global league table. Cuba and Monaco stand out with more than eight to nine physicians per 1,000 people, while a broader group of European health systems provide four to six doctors per 1,000 residents.
| Rank | Country | Physicians per 1,000 people |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cuba | 9.5 |
| 2 | Monaco | 8.6 |
| 3 | Seychelles | 6.6 |
| 4 | Greece | 6.6 |
| 5 | Belgium | 6.5 |
| 6 | Lithuania | 6.1 |
| 7 | Portugal | 5.9 |
| 8 | Georgia | 5.6 |
| 9 | Austria | 5.5 |
| 10 | Norway | 5.0 |
Bar chart: Top 10 physician densities per 1,000 people
The chart below visualises how far the leading health systems are ahead of the global median, which sits closer to 2 physicians per 1,000 people.
Note: values are rounded from the latest available data (mostly 2021–2023) and harmonised into a 2025 ranking for comparative analysis.
From dense European systems to emerging economies: the full Top 100 ranking
The extended league table confirms a strong European core, but also highlights high doctor densities in Latin America, the Gulf and a few small island states.
Most of the countries in the Top 100 exceed 2 physicians per 1,000 people, often by a wide margin. That is well above the classic World Health Organization benchmark of at least 2.5 health workers (doctors, nurses and midwives combined) per 1,000 population for basic coverage. At the same time, there is considerable variation even within this “high-capacity” group: some systems rely heavily on physicians, others on nurses and midwives.
The upper third of the table is dominated by Southern and Eastern Europe plus a handful of small high-income economies. Further down the ranking, we see large OECD members like the United States, Japan and Brazil, and upper-middle-income countries such as Mexico, Turkey and Malaysia. Even within the Top 100, the spread runs from almost 10 physicians per 1,000 residents down to around 1.6.
Top 100 countries by physicians per 1,000 people (latest data, harmonised to 2025)
Based on the latest available WHO / World Bank estimates per 10,000 people, converted to physicians per 1,000 and rounded to one decimal place.
| Rank | Country | Physicians per 1,000 people |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cuba | 9.5 |
| 2 | Monaco | 8.6 |
| 3 | Seychelles | 6.6 |
| 4 | Greece | 6.6 |
| 5 | Belgium | 6.5 |
| 6 | Lithuania | 6.1 |
| 7 | Portugal | 5.9 |
| 8 | Georgia | 5.6 |
| 9 | Austria | 5.5 |
| 10 | Russia | 5.1 |
| 11 | Argentina | 5.1 |
| 12 | Andorra | 5.1 |
| 13 | Norway | 5.0 |
| 14 | Belarus | 4.7 |
| 15 | Uruguay | 4.7 |
| 16 | San Marino | 4.6 |
| 17 | Germany | 4.5 |
| 18 | Malta | 4.5 |
| 19 | Denmark | 4.5 |
| 20 | Switzerland | 4.5 |
| 21 | Sweden | 4.4 |
| 22 | Iceland | 4.4 |
| 23 | Czechia | 4.3 |
| 24 | Bulgaria | 4.3 |
| 25 | Spain | 4.3 |
| 26 | Saint Lucia | 4.2 |
| 27 | Italy | 4.2 |
| 28 | Trinidad and Tobago | 4.2 |
| 29 | Mongolia | 4.1 |
| 30 | Australia | 4.1 |
| 31 | Poland | 4.0 |
| 32 | Moldova | 4.0 |
| 33 | Croatia | 3.9 |
| 34 | Paraguay | 3.9 |
| 35 | Netherlands | 3.9 |
| 36 | Ireland | 3.9 |
| 37 | Israel | 3.8 |
| 38 | Kazakhstan | 3.8 |
| 39 | Slovakia | 3.7 |
| 40 | United States | 3.7 |
| 41 | North Korea | 3.6 |
| 42 | Romania | 3.6 |
| 43 | Finland | 3.6 |
| 44 | Cyprus | 3.6 |
| 45 | Ukraine | 3.5 |
| 46 | Estonia | 3.5 |
| 47 | Hungary | 3.5 |
| 48 | Saudi Arabia | 3.4 |
| 49 | Latvia | 3.4 |
| 50 | Slovenia | 3.4 |
| 51 | Armenia | 3.4 |
| 52 | Chile | 3.3 |
| 53 | United Kingdom | 3.3 |
| 54 | France | 3.3 |
| 55 | Azerbaijan | 3.2 |
| 56 | China | 3.1 |
| 57 | Serbia | 3.1 |
| 58 | Saint Kitts and Nevis | 3.1 |
| 59 | Qatar | 3.0 |
| 60 | United Arab Emirates | 3.0 |
| 61 | Luxembourg | 3.0 |
| 62 | Barbados | 3.0 |
| 63 | North Macedonia | 2.9 |
| 64 | Antigua and Barbuda | 2.9 |
| 65 | Jordan | 2.8 |
| 66 | Singapore | 2.8 |
| 67 | Canada | 2.8 |
| 68 | Montenegro | 2.8 |
| 69 | Costa Rica | 2.7 |
| 70 | Lebanon | 2.7 |
| 71 | Japan | 2.7 |
| 72 | South Korea | 2.6 |
| 73 | Mexico | 2.6 |
| 74 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 2.6 |
| 75 | Colombia | 2.5 |
| 76 | Dominican Republic | 2.4 |
| 77 | New Zealand | 2.4 |
| 78 | Brazil | 2.4 |
| 79 | Malaysia | 2.3 |
| 80 | Ecuador | 2.3 |
| 81 | Uzbekistan | 2.3 |
| 82 | Kuwait | 2.3 |
| 83 | Turkey | 2.2 |
| 84 | Maldives | 2.2 |
| 85 | Palestine | 2.2 |
| 86 | Libya | 2.0 |
| 87 | Oman | 2.0 |
| 88 | Turkmenistan | 1.9 |
| 89 | Brunei | 1.9 |
| 90 | Albania | 1.9 |
| 91 | Tajikistan | 1.9 |
| 92 | Bahamas | 1.9 |
| 93 | Iran | 1.8 |
| 94 | Palau | 1.8 |
| 95 | Peru | 1.7 |
| 96 | Cook Islands | 1.7 |
| 97 | Niue | 1.7 |
| 98 | Venezuela | 1.7 |
| 99 | Panama | 1.6 |
| 100 | El Salvador | 1.6 |
How physician and nursing capacity interact
Doctor density is only one side of the health-workforce equation. Some countries combine high numbers of physicians with equally high numbers of nurses and midwives – notably Norway, Switzerland, Finland and Canada. Others, such as Greece and Cuba, are relatively doctor-heavy but have more modest nursing density. A third pattern appears in countries like Brazil and Malaysia, where both physicians and nurses are in an intermediate range.
The scatter plot below contrasts physicians and nursing/midwifery personnel per 1,000 people for a diverse subset of systems – from high-capacity European and island states to large emerging economies and lower-income countries. The positive relationship is clear, but there are wide gaps in the skill mix and absolute levels of staffing.
Scatter chart: physicians vs nurses per 1,000 people (selected countries)
Each point is a country. Values combine the latest available physician and nursing densities, converted from per 10,000 people and rounded.
Note: Data points use different reference years by country (typically 2018–2023) and are harmonised for 2025 comparison. They should be interpreted as indicative, not exact.
What physician gaps mean for health systems in 2025
The Top 100 ranking shows where physician capacity is already high enough to support complex care and where it is still catching up. Yet country averages hide large internal inequalities. France, the United Kingdom or Brazil may appear comfortable in terms of doctors per 1,000 people, while rural regions and low-income urban districts still experience long waiting times and so-called “medical deserts”.
In low- and lower-middle-income countries outside the Top 100, physician density often remains below 1 per 1,000. There the policy challenge is to train, finance and retain enough health workers at all levels – physicians, nurses, midwives and community health workers – while also investing in infrastructure, diagnostics and digital tools. Emigration of doctors to higher-income systems further complicates the picture.
For high-income and upper-middle-income members of the Top 100, the issue is less about absolute numbers and more about distribution, specialty mix and work patterns. Ageing populations, rising chronic disease and changing expectations around work–life balance all push governments to rethink how they organise primary care, hospital services and telehealth.
Using physician density data for smarter health-workforce planning
- Look beyond a single target number. A threshold such as 3 physicians per 1,000 people is useful, but planning should combine physician data with nurses, midwives and community health workers, plus population age structure and disease burden.
- Prioritise distribution, not just production. Many Top 100 countries have more than enough doctors in total, but too few in underserved rural, peri-urban or low-income areas. Incentives, training pathways and telehealth coverage can all reduce “medical deserts”.
- Align skills with service models. Systems that invest heavily in physicians but underinvest in nurses and primary-care teams may struggle with fragmented care and hospital congestion. Rebalancing the skill mix – including advanced nursing roles – can improve outcomes without simply adding more doctors.
- Monitor international mobility. Middle-income countries in the Top 100, from Eastern Europe to Latin America, face strong outflows of health workers to richer neighbours. Bilateral agreements, ethical recruitment codes and support for return migration can help avoid permanent depletion of capacity.
- Invest in data quality. Some of the largest uncertainties in the ranking stem from inconsistent definitions (licensed vs practising physicians) and outdated reporting. Strengthening health-workforce information systems is a relatively low-cost way to improve planning and accountability.
How to read and use this ranking
This Top 100 list is best understood as a comparative snapshot rather than a precise league table. Small differences – for example between 3.3 and 3.5 physicians per 1,000 – are often within the margin of measurement and definitional error. Larger gaps, such as between Cuba or Monaco and middle-income members of the ranking, or between the Top 100 and low-income countries outside it, are much more robust.
For policymakers, the more important exercise is to combine this sort of international benchmarking with sub-national maps of health-worker density, service coverage and health outcomes. That is where data on physicians per 1,000 people becomes directly actionable: informing where to build training capacity, how to structure payment systems, and which communities should be prioritised for primary-care expansion.
Primary data sources and technical notes
The figures in this article are compiled from the following sources and converted from per 10,000 to per 1,000 people for comparability. Where several years were available, the latest observation circa 2021–2023 was used.
-
World Bank – World Development Indicators, indicator
“Physicians (per 1,000 people)” (code SH.MED.PHYS.ZS). Original data from
WHO Global Health Workforce Statistics, OECD and national sources.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.MED.PHYS.ZS -
World Bank – World Development Indicators, indicator
“Nurses and midwives (per 1,000 people)” (code SH.MED.NUMW.P3), used for the
nurse density values in the scatter plot.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.MED.NUMW.P3 -
WHO Global Health Observatory (GHO) – Health workforce statistics dashboard,
providing country-level time series on medical doctors, nurses and midwives per
population.
https://www.who.int/data/gho -
World Bank DataBank – series metadata for SH.MED.PHYS.ZS and SH.MED.NUMW.P3,
including definitions, coverage and methodological notes on health-workforce density
indicators.
https://databank.worldbank.org/metadataglossary/health-nutrition-and-population-statistics/series/SH.MED.PHYS.ZS -
Our World in Data – processed datasets on physicians and on nurses and midwives per
1,000 people, derived from World Bank / WHO and used as a cross-check for country
values and time trends.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/physicians-per-1000-people -
WorldPopulationReview – “Doctors per Capita by Country 2025” overview, which
consolidates recent WHO / World Bank data and was used as a reference for the
Top 100 ordering in this article.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/doctors-per-capita-by-country
Global Healthcare Capacity – Physicians per 1,000 People (Top 100, 2025)
ZIP archive with StatRanker-ready assets for the article on physician density: CSV tables for the Top 10 and full Top 100 ranking, plus PNG charts for the bar and scatter visualisations.
Use in dashboards, static charts or further analysis. Values are approximate and harmonised from 2021–2023 data into a 2025 ranking.
